Methods and systems for provisioning and maintaining a circuit in a data network

ABSTRACT

A disclosed example method involves at a network management module, receiving a request for logical circuit data associated with a network circuit. In addition, the example method involves requesting the logical circuit data from a legacy logical element in communication with a network device of the network circuit. The logical circuit data is received from the legacy logical element. The logical circuit data is indicative of whether the network circuit has failed.

PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

This patent is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/339,426, filed Dec. 19, 2008, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/348,592, filed Jan. 21, 2003, both of which arehereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to provisioning and maintaining a circuitin a data network without manual intervention.

BACKGROUND

Data networks contain various network devices, such as switches, forsending and receiving data between two locations. For example, a framerelay network contains interconnected network devices that allow datapackets to be channeled over a circuit through the network from a hostto a remote device. For a given network circuit, the data from a hostlocation is delivered to the network through a physical circuit such asa T1 line that links to a switch of the network. The remote device thatcommunicates with the host through the network also has a physicalcircuit to a switch of the network. The communication path between theswitches associated with the host and the remote device that passesthrough the network is a logical circuit. In a frame relay network, enddevices do not select different routes for data packets sent between thehost and the remote location, but always send the data packets throughthe same path. A host may have many logical circuits, such as permanentvirtual circuits (PVCs) or switched virtual circuits (SVCs), linked tomany remote locations. For example, a PVC in a frame relay network sendsand receives data packets through the same path leading to the switch ofthe remote device's physical connection

The switches in a data network are generally in communication with oneor more legacy logical and physical element modules. For example, in aframe relay network, a logical element module communicates with a switchto instruct the switch to function as a logical port in the network. Theswitches of the network send data packets to particular destinations andthereby create logical circuits in response to the information providedby the logical element module. Because the legacy logical element modulehas access to the switches, it can also log the operating parameters ofeach switch. The legacy logical and physical element modules areutilized by technicians to employ methods for provisioning andmaintaining network circuits in the network. These current methods,however, suffer from several drawbacks.

First, to provision a network circuit for a service, it is currentlynecessary for a technician to establish the physical circuit by making aphysical connection (i.e., wiring the circuit) between a host device andthe switch and then to access a terminal in the logical element moduleto manually enter data for establishing the logical circuit in theswitch. However, these current methods for provisioning network circuitsrequire the utilization of manpower resources (i.e., technicians arerequired at the switch and at the legacy logical element module) whichcould be deployed elsewhere as well as the time required for thetechnicians to manually enter the provisioning data.

Second, to maintain a network circuit, currently two processes generallyoccur after a problem is reported. First, a technician accesses thelegacy logical element module to troubleshoot the logical circuit byaccessing and analyzing logical circuit data from one or more switchesto determine if the logical circuit is down. If the logical circuit isoperating properly, the technician then accesses the legacy physicalelement module to troubleshoot the physical circuit, which in mostinstances requires taking the network circuit out of service to performtesting. However, currently there is no access by the legacy physicalelement module to the logical data provided by the legacy logicalelement module for use in troubleshooting physical circuits. As a resultof not having access to the logical data, there may be instances wherethe network circuit is unnecessarily taken out of service

Therefore, there is a need for an interface to provision networkcircuits in a data network without manual intervention. There is afurther need for access to logical circuit data to improve themaintenance of network circuits in a data network.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention provide for a method and system forprovisioning a network circuit in a data network without manualintervention. A network management module receives an order forprovisioning the circuit and then, based on the order, transmits arequest to a legacy logical element module to configure a logicalcircuit in one or more network devices in the network. The networkdevice may be a switch. The circuit may be a frame relay circuit, an ATMcircuit, or other logical circuit.

In another embodiment of the invention, a method and system are providedfor maintaining a network circuit in a data network. The network circuitincludes both a logical circuit and a physical circuit. A legacyphysical element module sends a request for logical circuit data to alegacy logical element module through a network management module incommunication with the legacy physical element module. Based on therequest, the legacy logical element module retrieves the logical circuitdata from one or more network devices in the network and transmits thedata to the legacy physical element module through the networkmanagement module. Upon receiving the logical circuit data, the legacyphysical element module troubleshoots the physical circuit to maintainthe network circuit.

The various aspects of the present invention may be more clearlyunderstood and appreciated from a review of the following detaileddescription of the disclosed embodiments and by reference to thedrawings and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a networked environment including a data network and amanagement system in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative routine for provisioning a network circuitin the networked environment shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative routine for performing maintenance on anetwork circuit in the networked environment shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention are generally employed in anetworked environment 100 as shown in FIG. 1. The networked environment100, includes a data network 150, which contains one or moreinterconnected network elements, such as switches 106, 107, and 108, fortransmitting data. The data network 150 may be a frame relay network. Inone embodiment, the switches 106, 107, and 108 may be data packetswitches. It will be appreciated that the data network may also containother interconnected network devices and elements (not shown) such asdigital access and cross connect switches (DACS), channel service units(CSUs), and data service units (DSUs).

The data network 150 channels data using a network circuit 115 between ahost device 112 and a remote device 114. The network circuit 115includes a physical circuit and a logical circuit. As used in theforegoing description and the appended claims, a physical circuit isdefined as the physical path that connects the end point of a networkcircuit to a network device. For example, in the networked environment100 of FIG. 1, the physical circuit of the network circuit 115 includesthe physical connection 121 between the router 109 and the switch 106 aswell as the physical connection 103 between the router 110 and theremote device 114. Routers 109 and 110 carry the physical signal fromthe end devices 112 and 114 over the connections 101 and 103 to thenetwork 150. The routers 109 and 110 are connected to host devices 112and 114 by links 121 and 123 respectively. The routers 109 and 110 maybe local area network (LAN) routers, LAN bridges, hosts, front endprocessors, Frame Relay Access Devices (FRADs), or any other device witha frame relay or network interface. It should be appreciated that thehost devices may be configured to serve as routers (thus eliminating theneed for the routers 109 and 110). It should also be appreciated that asingle router may be linked to multiple host devices. The physicalconnections 101 and 103 for the physical circuit may be any physicalcommunications medium such as a 56 Kbps line or T1 line carried over afour-wire shielded cable or over a fiber optic cable.

As used in the foregoing description and the appended claims, a logicalcircuit is defined as a portion of the network circuit wherein data issent over a communication data path between the first and last networkdevices in the data network. For example, in the networked environment100 of FIG. 1, the logical circuit of the network circuit 115 mayinclude the communication path 105 between the switches 106, 107, and108 in the data network 150. In one embodiment, the logical path 105 maybe a trunk for physically interconnecting the switches 106, 107, and108. It should be understood that the actual path taken by data throughthe data network 150 is not fixed and may vary from time to time, suchas when automatic rerouting takes place. For example, the logicalcircuit of the network circuit 115 may include the communication path104 between the switches 106 and 108. It should be understood that nomatter what path the data takes, the beginning and end of the logicalcircuit (i.e., the switches 106 and 108) will not change. It will beappreciated that the data network 150 may contain additional switches orother interconnected network elements creating multiple paths betweenthe switches 106, 107, and 108 defining the logical circuit in the datanetwork. In the data network 150, the logical circuit may be either apermanent virtual circuit (PVC) remaining available to the network atall times or a temporary or switched virtual circuit (SVC) available tothe network only as long as data is being transmitted.

In the networked environment 100, the network circuit 115 is establishedbetween the router 109 and the router 110 by channeling data packets orframes through the data network 150. In frame relay networks, each dataframe sent from the host device 112 and the remote device 114 includes aheader containing information, called a data link connection identifier(DLCI) which specifies the frame's destination, along with data. Theheader also includes specific bits for indicating the existence ofcongestion in the network and for discarding frames. In one embodiment,the logical circuit in the networked environment 100 may be provisionedwith parameters for handling network congestion. These parameters mayinclude a Committed Information Rate (CIR) and a Committed Burst Size(Bc). As is known to those skilled in the art, the CIR represents theaverage capacity of the logical circuit and the Bc represents themaximum amount of data that may be transmitted. The logical circuit maybe provisioned such that when the CIR or the Bc is exceeded, the framewill be discarded by the receiving switch in the data network. It willbe appreciated that the parameters for the logical circuit are notlimited to the CIR and the Bc and that other parameters may beprovisioned which are known to those skilled in the art. It should beunderstood that the embodiments of the present invention are not limitedto frame relay networks but may also be implemented in other types ofdata networks such as asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and native-modelocal area networks.

The networked environment 100 may also include a signaling mechanism fordetermining the status of the logical circuit in the data network 150.In a frame relay network, the signaling mechanism may be in accord witha Local Management Interface (LMI) specification which provides for thesending and receiving of “status inquiries” between the network and anaccess device. The LMI specification includes obtaining statusinformation through the use of special management frames with a uniqueDLCI address which may be passed between the network and the accessdevice. These frames monitor the status of the connection and provideinformation regarding the health of the network. For example in the datanetwork 150, the router 109 receives status information from the switch106 in response to a status request sent in a special management frame.The LMI status information may include whether or not the logicalcircuit is congested or whether or not the network circuit is down. Itshould be understood that the parameters and the signaling mechanismdiscussed above are optional and that other parameters and mechanismsmay also be utilized to obtain connection status information for anetwork circuit.

The networked environment 100 includes a service order system 160 forreceiving service orders for provisioning network circuits. The serviceorder includes information defining the transmission characteristics(i.e., the logical circuit) of the network circuit. The service orderalso contains the access speed, CIR, burst rates, and excess burstrates. The service order system 160 communicates the service orderinformation to a network database 170 over management trunk 171. Thenetwork database 170 assigns and stores the parameters for the physicalcircuit for the network circuit such as a port number on the switch 106for transmitting data over the physical connections 101 and 103 to thehost device 112.

The network database 170 may also be in communication with an operationssupport system (not shown) for assigning physical equipment to thenetwork circuit and for maintaining an inventory of the physicalassignments for the network circuit. An illustrative operations supportsystem is “TIRKS”® (Trunks Integrated Records Keeping System) marketedby TELECORDIA™ TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. of Morristown, N.J. The networkdatabase 170 may also be in communication with a Work ForceAdministration and Control system (WFA/C) (not shown) which is used toassign resources (i.e., technicians) to work on installing the physicalcircuit.

The networked environment 100 also includes a legacy logical elementmodule 153 in communication with the switches 106, 108 and host device112 and remote devices 114 through management trunks 185. The legacylogical element module 153 runs a network management application programto monitor the operation and retrieve data regarding the operation ofthe logical circuit established between switch 106 and switch 108 forthe network circuit 115. The legacy logical element module may consistof terminals (not shown) that display a map-based graphical userinterface (GUI) of the logical connections in the data network. Anillustrative legacy logical element module is the NAVISCORE™ systemmarketed by LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. of Murray Hill, N.J.

The networked environment 100 further includes a legacy physical elementmodule 155. The legacy physical element module 155 runs a networkmanagement application program to monitor the operation and retrievedata regarding the operation of the physical circuit of the networkcircuit 115. The legacy physical element module is also in communicationwith the network database 170 for accessing information regardingphysical circuits such as the line speed of the physical circuit.Similar to the legacy logical element module 153, the physical logicalelement module 155 may also consist of terminals (not shown) thatdisplay a map-based graphical user interface (GUI) of the physicalconnections in the data network. An illustrative physical element moduleis the Integrated Testing and Analysis System (INTAS), marketed byTELECORDIA™ TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. of Morristown, N.J., which providesflow-through testing and analysis of telephony services.

The legacy physical element module 155 troubleshoots the physicalconnections 101 and 103 for the physical circuit by communicating withtest module 180 which interfaces with the physical connections via testaccess points 156 and 157. The test module 180 obtains the status of thephysical circuit by transmitting “clean” test signals to test accesspoints 156 and 157 which “loopback” the signals for detection by thetest module 180. It should be understood that there may be multiple testaccess points on each of the physical connections 101 and 103 for thephysical circuit.

The networked environment further includes a network management module175 in communication with the service order system 160, the networkdatabase 170, the legacy logical element module 153, and the legacyphysical element module 155 through communications channels 172. Thecommunications channels 172 may be on a local area network (LAN). Thenetwork management module 175 may include a terminal (not shown), whichmay be a general-purpose computer system with a display screen. Thenetwork management module 175 serves as an interface for implementinglogical operations to provision and maintain network circuits in thenetworked environment 100. The logical operations may be implemented asmachine instructions stored locally or as instructions retrieved fromthe legacy element modules 153 and 155. The network management module175 may communicate with the legacy element management module 153 andthe legacy physical element management module 155 using a Common ObjectRequest Broker Architecture (CORBA). As is known to those skilled in theart, CORBA is an open, vendor-independent architecture andinfrastructure which allows different computer applications to worktogether over one or more networks using a basic set of commands andresponses. An illustrative routine illustrating the logical operationsperformed by the network management module 175 to provision and maintainnetwork circuits is described below with reference to FIGS. 2-3.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative routine for provisioning a network circuitin the networked environment 100. Referring now to FIG. 2, the routine200 begins at block 205 wherein the network management module 175receives a service order from the service order system 160 forprovisioning a network circuit for a customer, such as network circuit115. As described above, the service order includes information definingthe transmission characteristics of the logical circuit (i.e., accessspeed, CIR, burst rates, excess burst rates, and DCLI), as well as thephysical information needed by downstream systems (i.e., TIRKS and WFA)to assign physical equipment for installing the physical circuit. Atblock 210, the service order system 160 communicates the physicalcircuit information to the network database 170 which assigns theparameters for the physical circuit such as the port number on theswitch 106 for transmitting data over the physical connections 101 and103 to the host device 112.

The routine 200 continues to block 215 wherein the network managementsystem 175 receives the assignments for the physical circuit from thenetwork database 170. The network management module 175 thencommunicates the physical circuit information to a technician who makesthe physical connections to establish the physical circuit (i.e.,provisions) based on the assignments received from the network database170.

At block 220, the network management module 175 communicates the logicalinformation from the service order request to the legacy logical elementmodule 153 with instructions to provision the logical circuit. Thelegacy logical element module 153 provisions the logical circuit bylocating the appropriate network devices, and programming ports on theswitches in the data network 150 to create the logical circuit. Forexample, in the networked environment 100, the legacy logical elementmodule 153 would access ports in network device 106, 107, 108 andprogram the ports to deliver data from the host 112 to the remote device114 over connection path 105. Thus, the logical circuit for the networkcircuit 115 is provisioned by the network management module 175 withoutmanual intervention.

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative routine method 300 for performingmaintenance on the network circuit 115 in the networked environment 100.The routine 300 begins at block 305 wherein, in response to a reportedproblem, the legacy physical element module 155 obtains the physicalcircuit information (e.g., port information) from the network database170 and sends a request to network management module 175 to obtain thelogical circuit information for the network circuit 115.

The routine 300 continues to block 310, upon receiving the request fromthe legacy physical management module 155, the network management module175 sends a request to the legacy logical element module 153 to obtainlogical circuit data, such as the LMI status, for the logical circuit.At block 315, the legacy logical element module 153 retrieves thelogical circuit data from a switch, such as switch 106, in the datanetwork 150. The retrieved data may include the aforementioned LMIinformation as well as the CIR, the Bc, and the DLCI for the logicalcircuit. The legacy logical element module 153 then communicates thelogical circuit data to the network management module 175.

At block 320, the network management module 175 examines the logicalcircuit data to determine whether or not the logical circuit has failed(i.e., the logical circuit is not transmitting data) so that the legacyphysical element module 155 can safely test the network circuit 115 bytaking it out of service without losing data. For example, if the LMIinformation indicates that the logical circuit is congested (i.e., thecurrent access speed exceeds the CIR or the Bc thereby causing frames tobe dropped in the data network 150) or if the LMI information indicatesthat the network circuit 115 is “down” (indicated by the absence of a“keep alive” signal between a router and a switch in the data network),then the network management module 175 will communicate the logicalcircuit data to the legacy physical element module 155 and instruct thelegacy physical element module 155 to test the physical circuit at block325. The legacy physical element module 155 tests the physical circuitby communicating a request to the test module 180 to access a loop-abletest point 156 or 157 on the physical connections 101 or 103. The testsmay consist of determining whether the test module 180 can detect aclean signal that it transmits out to the loop-able test point. It willbe appreciated that more detailed and advanced testing may also beperformed by technicians using tools within the legacy physical elementmodule 155 as well as other tools.

Conversely, if at block 320, the network management module 175determines that the legacy physical element module 155 cannot safelytest the network circuit 155 (e.g., the logical circuit is not congestedand the network circuit 115 is “up,” then the network management module175 communicates again with the legacy logical element module todetermine if another logical circuit in the data network 150 has failedat block 310. As discussed briefly above, the communications between thelegacy physical element module 155, the network management module 175,and the legacy logical element module 153 may be implemented usingscript files containing sets of commands and responses through a CORBAinterface.

The network management module 175 enables the legacy physical elementmodule 155 to obtain logical circuit data from the legacy logicalelement module 153. As a result, technicians at the legacy physicalelement module 155 are able to use the logical circuit data totroubleshoot network circuits without unnecessarily taking them out ofservice. Although the present invention has been described in connectionwith various exemplary embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the artwill understand that many modifications can be made thereto within thescope of the claims that follow. Accordingly, it is not intended thatthe scope of the invention in any way be limited by the abovedescription, but instead be determined entirely by reference to theclaims that follow.

1. A method, comprising: at a network management module, receiving arequest for logical circuit data associated with a network circuit froma legacy physical element after a problem associated with the networkcircuit is reported to the legacy physical element and after the legacyphysical element retrieves physical circuit information associated withthe network circuit; requesting the logical circuit data from a legacylogical element in communication with a network device of the networkcircuit; receiving the logical circuit data from the legacy logicalelement, the logical circuit data indicative of whether the networkcircuit has failed; and when the network circuit has failed, sending thelogical circuit data to the legacy physical element external from thenetwork circuit to facilitate the legacy physical element in testing thenetwork circuit by taking the network circuit out of service withoutlosing data.
 2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the networkcircuit includes a physical circuit and a logical circuit.
 3. A methodas defined in claim 2, wherein the network circuit has failed when thelogical circuit is not transmitting data.
 4. A method as defined inclaim 1, wherein the network management module is external to thenetwork circuit.
 5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the legacyphysical element retrieves the physical circuit information from anetwork database that stores assignments of port numbers to physicalcircuits, and the physical circuit information is a port numberassociated with the network circuit.
 6. A system, comprising: a networkmanager to: receive a request for logical circuit data associated with anetwork circuit from a legacy physical element after a problemassociated with the network circuit has been reported to the legacyphysical element and after the legacy physical element has retrievedphysical circuit information associated with the network circuit;request the logical circuit data from a legacy logical element incommunication with a network device of the network circuit, the logicalcircuit data to indicate whether the network circuit has failed; and thelegacy physical element to: receive the logical circuit data from thenetwork manager when the network circuit has failed; and test thenetwork circuit by taking the network circuit out of service withoutlosing data.
 7. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the networkcircuit includes a physical circuit and a logical circuit.
 8. Anapparatus as defined in claim 7, wherein the network circuit has failedwhen the logical circuit is not transmitting data.
 9. An apparatus asdefined in claim 6, wherein the network manager is external to thenetwork circuit.
 10. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein thelegacy physical element is to retrieve the physical circuit informationfrom a network database that stores assignments of port numbers tophysical circuits, and the physical circuit information is a port numberassociated with the network circuit.
 11. A tangible article ofmanufacture having machine readable instructions stored thereon that,when executed, cause a machine to at least: at a network manager,receive a request for logical circuit data associated with a networkcircuit from a legacy physical element after a problem associated withthe network circuit is reported to the legacy physical element and afterthe legacy physical element retrieves physical circuit informationassociated with the network circuit; request the logical circuit datafrom a legacy logical element in communication with a network device ofthe network circuit; receive the logical circuit data from the legacylogical element, the logical circuit data indicative of whether thenetwork circuit has failed; and when the network circuit has failed,send the logical circuit data to the legacy physical element externalfrom the network circuit to facilitate the legacy physical element intesting the network circuit by taking the network circuit out of servicewithout losing data.
 12. An article of manufacture as defined in claim11, wherein the network circuit includes a physical circuit and alogical circuit.
 13. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 12,wherein the network circuit has failed when the logical circuit is nottransmitting data.
 14. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 11,wherein the network manager is external to the network circuit.
 15. Anarticle of manufacture as defined in claim 11, wherein the legacyphysical element retrieves the physical circuit information from anetwork database that stores assignments of port numbers to physicalcircuits, and the physical circuit information is a port numberassociated with the network circuit.